braiding the piggy bank of cyprus delays a decision on whether to impose an e.u. and i.m.f. plan to plunder the nation's bank accounts. russia slams the proposal is unfair and dangerous with some experts saying if the tax is brought in may have to rethink its help for ailing europe. plus state of denial the u.s. military maintains there's no mass hunger strike. or more than one hundred detainees are reportedly starving themselves in protest at mistreatment. no war or peace we ask what washington and its allies have left behind in iraq as more deadly bombing strikes the nation at the ten year anniversary of the u.s. led invasion.

you're watching live from moscow it is seven pm here in the russian capital the parliament in cyprus has delayed until tuesday a decision on whether to allow an e.u. bailout which will cost its citizens millions of. every bank customer customer out will have that cash taxed if it goes through the plan that caused panic over the weekend with people emptying a.t.m. machines fearing their life savings could be plundered correspondent tess alasania reports on the implications. the e.u. finance ministers as the and the international monetary fund had agreed upon a ten billion euro bailout for the country on the condition that this bank tax a bank deposit tax be imposed now this could amount to up to nine point nine percent of those who have more than one hundred thousand euros in the bag and for many people there it's their entire life savings that they have that are they feel are now in trouble and the panic that has been stirred over the weekend people

trying to get money out of the cash machines but electronic transfers have been stopped and the machines have been running out of money and people there are calling this essentially unfair unjust and simply robbery their their savings being taken away from them the president of the country however have has been painting this acceptance of the bailout as crucial for the country says that if. this requirement is not passed then the country will might be forced to get out of the euro of the euro zone area and therefore some people feel that the country has really been put in a position where it has no choice but to accept everything that has be handed down by brussels by e.u. leaders by the meetings that they have here as far as the people are concerned again they really see this as as an infringement for what is supposed to be there and this is unprecedented in the sense that this is the first time that a requirement for a bailout is actually actually means dipping into the personal savings of citizens that this is the first time it has happened officials here say that this is not

going to be a precedent that is not going to be a trend to whatever already there is doubt among the e.u. citizens to whether or not this line the red line that they thought would never be cross has actually already been crossed and if we look again at what may be the biggest factor in disrupting the very fabric of the european union is this kind of social dissatisfaction this kind of a protest from the people where there are where they are not happy with the kind of decisions that their leaders are making as it directly impacts the very quality of their lives. while the aftershocks of the proposition have been felt in other countries both inside and outside the eurozone. unfair unprofessional and dangerous with the words that putin used through his spokesman about this tax on deposits in cyprus that would be necessary for that ten billion euro e.u. i.m.f.

loan russian banks russian businessmen and exceptionally rich russian individuals hold a disproportionately huge deposits in cyprus given the country's size the exact number of billions is estimated to be above ten but the exact number could be far higher it's very hard to establish it's partly because of that reason that the e.u. wanted a tax to try and distribute the burden equally and to avoid money laundering there are reports in the greek media that the russian state energy giant gazprom proposed its own bailout to cyprus in return for energy exploration rights around the island but it was turned down because cyprus want to dissolution from within the e.u. all of this does raise questions about the future of russian deposits in cyprus about whether this tax will hurt more investors all the banks that hold their

deposits if those deposits are withdraw it also raises questions over a two point five billion euro loan given by russia to cyprus which may itself not be extended well global markets analyst patrick young says that the proposition to encroach on personal as well as foreign bank deposits which the whole banking system. the eurozone and the european union have looked at the overall cyprus situation and said a huge swathe of deposits here come from people outside the european union and whether they've done it entirely cynically or whether they've done it entirely consciously we can never be absolutely clear but there certainly looks to me to be a lot of politics behind this move essentially the euro zone the european union have said who can we manage to take a haircut from that are actually not our citizens not our voters or not our beleaguered banks who are largely incompetent that also is a terrible precedent to set because ultimately

a biking system is reliant upon foreign deposits and all foreigners whether they're russian corporate russian oligarchs or whoever they are it matters not one iota because the whole point is that from today on people will be aware that there is a precedent for burning investors who want to hold the euro. but we're also closely following the tensions in cyprus on our website r.t. dot com that's where we're asking what you think will the outcome will be of the controversial deposit levy and so far here's how your votes are coming in the majority believe forcing savers to pay for the bank's mistakes will only cause social unrest thirty seven percent expect a chain reaction of bank runs leading to the collapse of the e.u. less of you blame the florida eurozone system saying the cash will only offer a short term solution and this hour only a minority has faith in the debated topics to bring stability to the island states i'll take dot com is where you can tell us what you think i'm also on line for you

. the rounds launching a new domestically built missile destroyer to guard interest in the caspian sea marking its first heavyweight presence in the oil rich region also. venezuela's acting president nicolas maduro who says the cia on the pentagon want to kill his upcoming election rival and pin the blame on him much more on our website r.t. dot com. despite mounting media coverage on the legal appeals the u.s. military continues to deny a mass hunger strike is underway one ton of money by lawyers for more than one hundred detainees say they've been starving themselves for over forty days in protest at the desecration of the koran by prison guards one grilled by r.t. and one ton of my spokesman defended the facilities policy captain robert duran says get a's and i quote you can see that commit it to the safe legal humane untransparent care and custody of detainees here earlier claimed only fourteen

captives are refusing all food with some of those being force fed to prevent starvation well let's now get reaction from omar deghayes who was held at guantanamo for five years and released without charge omar thank you very much for joining us here on our to say do you agree with what you just heard from mr girard i mean we you treated with respect when you were there. no of course not everyone is not treated with respect there's a systematic torture system where people dignities are attacked and this huge rhetoric that this man was describing is something that we have been through many times when we were inside one thousand hunger strikes were used to remember that they used to say the same for things that i'm hearing again now where they say you know no more there's no hunger strike all we treat people with dignity usually today it's forty two days or forty two days people are in hunger strike which means it's an alarming stage where people start to die and start to fall off

and start to be. in a serious serious illness position the injured usually what this camp with being now inside would be the doctors going around and it's a chaotic situation. and then just a situation where people of what happened is they go every morning around every cell and if they see somebody doesn't move they will force him to sell and beat him up and hold him down to the ground and force of forcibly feed him and this is my this is the situation now as we speak english and we're being not what they are usually the relationship media that works in montana mercedes to the outside world imagine that hunger strikes have happened in the past that they achieve anything. the the problem is not with achieving the problem when people go into hunger strike is that there's no other way to to inform the outside world that there is something seriously bad going on inside in on time away and when the prisoners resort to

hunger strike this means that there's something seriously provoked provocative has taken place and usually it's to do with the religious and sexual abuse that has been taking place and. so it's not whether things change or not things do not changing and then once a systematic torture specifically birth what happens is that people want to inform the outside world that there's something serious going on so i'm going to animate and they want the world to take notice of why do you think prisoners are being treated so badly. i don't understand because obama's promises of closing down guantanamo. you know he when he came to power he said he was going to close down guantanamo but what happened is actually nothing has changed since bush went of just obama came in and all the false and lying you know untrue promises that he made haven't changed anything the condition it's not got worse inside going

tandem of the possibilities why things have changed i don't know if we could be some publicist the intent towards the inside the u.s. government it could be a change of venue directorship for new. guard force which doesn't understand how to deal with people inside going down i'm going to take some time until they understand they have to. understand what the reason for this mistreatment is essentially especially that more than half of the people in montana cleared for release they even themselves under their criteria is the americans right if they think these people are not criminals have not committed anything they are cleared for release you say that the conditions have certainly not improved since since you were there do you think in fact they deteriorate to take it from what you're hearing and reading. you know until i heard somebody who was released after obama's office and someone was. released to france he spoke in

a conference and he said things going worse after obama so the things fluctuate i'm not sure what happens in the usually sometimes there's a period of calm and then suddenly it's a it's a. purposely manipulates thing. it's engineered in a way where it's karma and then they create something to cause chaos and then coming in in the employers again because this balance of the people who are inside without them it's a kind of a policy that went on even when i was in inside and i'm. like i mark thanks very much for your time i guess he was a prisoner in guantanamo bay and released without charge thank you for joining us here on r.t. thank you very much well earlier we spoke to former guantanamo bay guard brenda neely who admits he took part in the abuse of detainees the army veteran says the u.s. has only created more terrorists through its actions. the facility is a lot better but speak guards of been there over the last few years all the dream inside it for is the internal reaction force team and the way the crown is treated

in a stuff like that not much has changed maybe the outside is changed but the inside hasn't changed too much are people forget that these people have been cleared for release by not only the obama administration but also by the bush administration and they're going to be into definitely all through whom goes along they don't know when they're going to see their families again or where they're going to go i think the fact that they don't know what's going to happen you know is it makes them gross and this is their only one form of protest they have this to go on for three and in fact is the one who were open to cameras out of open guantanamo knew from the get go and that it was wrong that it was was illegally and it was a violation of human rights and the fact is it has to be closed the fact is they'll never bring him into a federal court system because a lot of the information they have gotten as mindy to have been have gotten out of the use of torture so they can it's on a missile if the reports are still well we dropped the ball we have a system here and we have the opportunity to show the world that arse still and our way of life actually works when we drop the ball in an unknown we've created more terrorists and enemies around the world than we could ever imagine. well despite

pledging to shut down guantanamo during his first presidential campaign in two thousand and eight barack obama has now dropped the issue from the top of his agenda but this is drawn into law in the us where the mainstream media prefers to keep get out of the headlines the war on terror is still marketed as a good enough reason to keep the camera running. recaps the failed attempts to bring kuantan of my to an end. the story around the closure of guantanamo bay prison has stuck to president obama ever since the dramas to shut it down and here are some of the key dates on the way in general two thousand and nine when obama was inaugurated he ordered the facility to be closed within a year and burned to certain into rigden methods after the us government admitted torturing some of the detainees but in me the same year the u.s. senate refused to fund the closure until the president provided more detail as to what he would do with the prisoners in mid october appear the situation changed as congress allowed some detainee's to be moved to the united states for prosecution

but at the end of two thousand and ten congress approved the defense spending bill which prevented u.s.b. straus for guantanamo detainees and in january two thousand and eleven hopes a bomb would keep his campaign promise dimmed further when he signed the defense of the reason which ruled out shutting one tunnel be down and prevented the transfer of prisoners from the camp in march obama also signed an executive order resuming military trials for guantanamo detainees a move seen by many as a complete reversal of its previous policy while in december of two thousand and eleven the president failed to veto the national defense bill breeding the way for prisoners to be held indefinitely and without charge and extending the ban on moving them from the prison finally in july last year the pentagon announced its plans to a forty million dollar fiberoptic cable from guantanamo bay to the u.s. mainland not exactly a sign of washington is planning to wrap up its operations in the controversial

detention center. stay with r.t. for our in-depth coverage of the alleged mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay we've got all the details the mainstream media is missing and there's more opinion and analysis of the story on our website or dot com and still ahead for you this hour europe's last dictator uncensored. i can prove it right here right now but there is no dictatorship in batteries. speaks exclusively to the president of belarus he dismisses western criticism saying he has devoted to democratic values as the next person and much more after this break.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. we speak your language. school music programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angles keaton's stories. for you here. then surely i'll teach spanish to find out more visit.

welcome back swati coming to you live from moscow. iraq is about smart ten years since the u.s. led invasion with thirty deaths from bomb attacks last week in baghdad and ten more on sunday in the south in two thousand and three washington unleashed its shock and awe strikes aimed to rid the country of suspected weapons of mass destruction and toppled saddam hussein a decade later arguments persist over whether anything was actually achieved all these guy and if you count investigates. there's no greater cost to war then shattered human lives the u.s. invasion into iraq resulted in the deaths of almost two hundred thousand iraqis according to various estimates the deadly metals released by bombs and bullets continue to kill. in fallujah more than half of all babies who were conceived after the start of the war were born with birth defects the infant mortality rate there

is disturbing. on the u.s. side the war took the lives of four thousand four hundred eighty six soldiers when you talk a country the size of iraq everyone knows someone that was killed. in the states when you're here less than one percent of people participated in or said at this point most americans have turned that off it's as though it didn't happen ten years of death and destruction and it's as though in this country we're done with that we've moved on and it's difficult if not impossible for any veterans and iraqis to move on from ten years of death and destruction the most recent study puts the total cost of the war at two trillion dollars with the u.s. the authors of the report say the country will continue to pay and over the next four decades that cost could reach six trillion dollars but on top of the human loss and dollars spent there's also been a political price to pay for american credibility and influence went down well

arounds went up and we're still living with the consequences of this ten years later so law of unintended consequences are you know polar moment ended when we went into baghdad but we didn't know it from the berlin wall to that time we destroyed the earth like a grand colossus and then after that it's all been very different colonel lawrence wilkerson who served as chief of staff to secretary of state colin powell at the time of the invasion says iraq has changed the way the world sees the us people look at what we do they do not judge us by our rhetoric our rhetoric is high and lofty and we talk about human rights and human dignity and freedom and democracy and what do we do we mount a war of aggression on iraq kill a couple hundred thousand people and mess it up majorly including the region much of what is happening now is a result. what we did in the right the world looks at them and they say this is not something we need in the world this kind of absolutely in the leadership and when

this happens in the world of international relations the world stands up and began to balance the hedger more today many of those who cheered for the iraq war because on t.v. shows and then their memoirs struggle to justify the decisions they made and the actions they took yes history will hold them responsible and render some sort of indictment but there is no accountability for people who make grievous errors in high office in the united states were the united states of amnesia as gore would also have. the tendency to forget and to move on could prove dangerous with new war talk brewing in washington with many of the same people who pushed for the iraq like lawrence are now pushing as a direct american to another concert interests a number of the insiders from the bush administration have come out and said the desire to topple directly government trumped all other considerations at the time of the invasion there was no credible intelligence that saddam had weapons of mass destruction or ties with al qaida and yet the administration wanted to invade at

all costs what we see from these policymakers today are just different shades of denial in washington i'm going to check out. policy advisor says iraq is riven by warring factions making it hard for any kind of peace to be achieved. the problem is that prior to the invasion it really was a difficult situation already the no fly zones in force by the british u.s. and french military and the end of very difficult sanctions meant that iraq prior to the invasion was already in a very poor state and so it's hard to say it remains in a very difficult situation one interesting point to note though is that a recent gallup survey in iraq said the people gave the message that basically they thought the place was small secure and now when the u.s. forces were present in greater numbers people should know that there are still many u.s. contractors there so it's not as though there is zero presence of united states and many people still see that as a presence which they want to fight against also iraq already was

a very divided nation you have could you have to an issue of many different minorities who unnecessarily happy with each other or with the prevailing leadership. looking for its place in the sun and wanting to live as a normal civilized european state that the goals president alexander lukashenko has for the future of belarus he told all take in an exclusive interview dubbed as europe's last dictator there shankar freely admits he wanted to give up power likely to deny speculation his youngest son will succeed him as president the leader of the former soviet republic has been repeatedly criticized by western states for violating human rights and oppressing the opposition but the shanghai was hit back saying his democracy is no different not found in europe or the u.s. . i can prove it right here right now that there is no dictatorship in belarus shall i very simply in just a few words this is the argument i used to convince my western partners in order to

be a dictator like starlin one has to have the resources resources of paramount you need to understand that do i have any nuclear weapons exactly i do not do i have as much oil as hugo chavez did in venezuela no do i have as much natural gas as russia number two and so on and so forth do i have so many people as china does one point five billion people you know that in order to be a dictator in dictate one's will one has to have the resources economic social military population and so on but we have none and i am being objective about it i am telling you that we have no claims of global importance and don't see ourselves solving major global problems we don't have the resources to do so what we want to do is find our place in the sun and live as an average civilized european state

that's all i want so i ask for dictatorship i say to them you're very lucky to meet europe's last dictator alive in person remember it is that something you probably won't see again. in other news this hour in afghanistan opposition parties are open to negotiations with the taliban the move they say is motivated by the government's lack of progress in agreeing peace with the militant group taliban officials have insisted that open for dialogue with the opposition especially with nato is fast approaching withdrawal next year. syrian jets have attacked two alleged rebel sites in lebanon there was some damage but so far that no reports of casualties this followed a warning from damascus that it would strike militant sites on its neighbors territory if it did not prevent rebels from crossing the border this is the second attack inside lebanon since the beginning of the popular uprising against syria's president bashar assad. in somalia's capital a car bomb reportedly

targeting senior government officials has left at least ten civilians dead the vehicle exploded as it passed by the presidential palace. and we have quite the returns on many issues security has been tight ever since a two thousand and eleven military offensive ousted is the most rebels from the states a hell of a bombings still coming. up next peter lavelle and his guests engage in some heated debate what could be on the agenda of president barack obama's upcoming visit to israel. there was a time in america when buses were officially segregated and today if they tried to

resegregate the wall next to it there would be outrage throughout the usa every t.v. channel and newspaper so segregation in america was wrong but no america funding segregation no for via foreign aid seems to be a ok and jim dandy arab language leaflets have been spread around west bank in palestinian areas asking residents to start using special bus lines plans to put palestinians on separate bus lines were first announced in november of two thousand and twelve after some complaints by jewish settlers of trouble on the buses between passengers of different ethnicities in regards to the special bus lines it's really human rights groups but so i'm said the attempt. is appalling and the current arguments about security needs an overcrowding must not be allowed to camouflage blatant racism you know when south africa had apartheid they were slammed with sanctions including from the us but if you're israel go ahead and segregate all the buses you like and you'll still. top

recipients of foreign aid three point one billion dollars a year if there's one thing i don't like it's hypocrisy like this but that's just my opinion.

please. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle u.s. president barack obama is about to visit the state of israel the first time during his time in office the so-called peace process we're told is not on the agenda so the real purpose of the visit iran syria to cope with what i call the great unraveling in the arab muslim world what does obama hope to achieve beyond paying his respects. to cross upcoming visit to israel i'm joined by norman finkelstein a new york political analyst and an author and in amman we have. co-editor of john the gentleman you can jump in anytime you want you know cross talk rules.